I'm running a binary logistic regression to test whether personality ratings (scale of 1-5) predict a binary outcome, in children. I want to enter factors such as age and gender as control variables, and then the personality ratings as the predictor variables. Is this possible?
Many thanks.
Best Answer
In principle, yes.
One thing to worry about is wether they are common causes for both your explanatory variable of interest and your outcome, i.e. whether your control variables are really potential confounders and not mediators. However, I suspect it is fairly safe to assume that age and sex (gender is a bit more complicated) influence personality rather than the other way around.
Another thing to be aware of is that by adding explanatory variables you change the meaning of your outcome, for example see here. This is not necesarily a problem, but it is something to be aware of.